Red Dead Online Adds Battle Royale-Like Gun Rush Mode

This circle ain't big enough for the 32 of us.

By Joe Skrebels

Rockstar is adding a new mode, Gun Rush to Red Dead Online today, and it sounds an awful lot like the Battle Royales we're used to.

Gun Rush, according to a press release, puts "your survival instincts to the test, gathering weapons and ammunition while the play area shrinks in this new mode for up to 32 players." The mode's available in both team and free-for-all variants.

The existing Make It Count mode takes Battle Royale's shrinking map, but only allows players to use a bow or throwing knives – the weapon scavenging in Gun Rush sounds far more like Fortnite or PUBG in approach.

Rockstar promises there are more updates coming soon, adding new Races, Showdown modes, clothing and emotes, as well as some more detailed additions. Per the press release:

Daily Challenges: Tackle new challenges each day covering every aspect of the game, from sharpshooting to evading the law.

Law and Bounty Upgrades: Some changes are coming to the way the Law and Bounty systems work in Red Dead Online to reduce the enticements for griefing. Soon, players will get a bounty for committing crimes and will be incentivized to pay them off within an allotted time. Wait too long and bounty hunters from each of the states will track the player forcing them to either pay up or escape.

Parley Changes: We’re making the Parley system easier to trigger so that you can avoid aggressive players more quickly. In addition, it will be easier to trigger Feuds, Posse Feuds and Leader Feuds to take on attacking players in structured competition.

Proximity-Based Player Blips: Player location blips will soon appear only over short distances, reducing the range at which you are visible to others, decreasing the likelihood of being targeted by another player across large areas. Down the line, we’re also looking to introduce the ability to identify players who grief and kill indiscriminately with a progressively darkening blip that becomes more visible and at a longer range, so everyone in a session can identify potentially dangerous opponents at a glance and from a safe distance.

Further out, Rockstar promises that this year will see new story missions, a series of dynamic events, and more. Those additions mean Online will remain a beta product for the time being, with Rockstar saying that it will be "a few more months" before it commits to a full release.

Our review of Red Dead Online will remain in progress until it sees that final release, but right now we think it's a "a fun escape whenever I find myself in a free roam lobby with people who tend to be playing it in a good spirit". Hopefully, those coming upgrades will help tone down the griefing that can spoil a good session.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he'll be the one giggling behind a tree. Follow him on Twitter.